Hendrik

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Hendrik (died February 1725) was a Dutch explorer working for the Dutch East India Company in the 1720s. He was a friend to navigator John Young.

During an expedition to Indochina, Hendrik stumbled upon the ruins of Angkor, the lost city of the Khmer Empire and an alleged Precursor site. He documented his discovery in his personal sea log, which would become the object of interest of both the Assassin Edward Kenway and the Templars, who sought to find Angkor for the Pieces of Eden they believed it contained.

History

Discovery of the lost city

Seeking to make a fortune in order to provide for his wife and children, Hendrik left them to join the Dutch East India Company as a sailor, a decision he eventually came to regret. While serving, Hendrik wrote a letter which he sought to give to his family in the event he failed to return. Hendrik also came to befriend a fellow company mate and navigator by the name of John Young.

At some point prior to February 1725, Hendrik was part of a company expedition to Indochina. While there, he discovered the location to the ruins of the lost city of the Khmer Empire, documenting what he found and knew in his personal sea log. To make the information more difficult to access in case the log ended up in the wrong hands, he encrypted it using a cipher, which he kept hidden inside the book. At one point while drunk, Hendrik told John about his discovery, not knowing that his friend would then steal his story and boast about it.

When Hendrik's group came to be based in Macau, then under the Portuguese Empire, he sought to find a way to return to Angkor for the riches he had found there. In 1725, Hendrik came to know of an affluential Qing merchant named Madam Lee and asked her to sponsor an expedition to the lost city, which would benefit them both since Lee's business was suffering after her company had been framed for a number of ship attacks in the Straits of Malacca. Lee rejected Hendrik's offer, believing his story to be absurd, and he was thus to forced to put a halt to his ambitious plans. In the meantime, he kept his log in a bank safe in the city, knowing how valuable the information within the book was.

Death and post-mortem

In February, Hendrik was attacked in his room at the company dormitories, being fatally stabbed in the abdomen by ninja from the Japanese Shimazu clan working for the Templars. The Assassin Edward Kenway, who was attempting to learn the location to the Angkor ruins, entered Hendrik's room moments after the attack, while Hendrik was still conscious. Hendrik told Edward a little about the lost city and asked that he deliver a letter to his family before finally passing.

Hearing the commotion, Hendrik's fellow company men entered his room, finding Edward and, thinking he was Hendrik's killer, attacked the Assassin, who fled by jumping out the window. Edward subsequently escaped the harbor with John Young's help, but was declared a fugitive by the authorities, who hanged wanted posters of him around Macau.

Meanwhile, Hendrik's sea log was acquired by Madam Lee, who was keeeping an eye on him and used her wealth to purchase the book from the bank safe. This caught the attention of the Templars, who approached Lee to demand the log, though she refused to give it to them. The Templars would eventually get their hands on the log after attacking Lee's private residence, the Mandarin's House, where the Templar Shimazu Saito took it from Edward, who had also come to recover the log. However, Edward managed to keep the cipher needed to decode the contents of the log pertaining to Angkor.

Gallery

• 
  Hendrik with his sea log

Appearances

• Assassin's Creed: Forgotten Temple